Dragon Quest XI Leads a Huge Week of Sales in Japan

Last week’s release of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age in Japan proved that the franchise is still a behemoth of sales in its homeland. The game sold more than 2 million of copies in its first two days according to Media Create, presenting a surprising parity between the numbers of the 3DS and PS4 versions, the latter becoming the biggest game release on the platform so far. It was also a huge week for hardware sales, with Nintendo 3DS and PS4 benefiting from the game’s release, and Nintendo Switch finally showing signs of more consoles being shipped to stores, almost repeating the same numbers as last week. All in all, this is certain to be one of the biggest weeks of the year in Japan.

Square Enix took a very particular approach to Dragon Quest XI, developing versions for such different platforms as 3DS and PS4, each featuring vastly different graphic presentation. The 3DS version offers a similar graphic style to the recent remakes released on the platform, as well as another reminiscing of the 8-bit style of the original trilogy.

The PS4 version, which for now it’s the only one confirmed to launch in the West, fits better with the vision of taking the series forward into a new age of HD graphics with more realistic proportions, while keeping its signature anime artstyle by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama.

Other relevant game releases of the week were Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy, which compiles the four entries of the series on PS4, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, although none made much of an impression in the charts.